1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a board stacking machine, and particularly a machine capable of stacking boards at high speed to form a square stack and which is completely automatic, and further wherein the boards are automatically oriented in end-to-end alignment and in side-by-side relationship.
2. Description of Prior Art
Various stacking machines are known for stacking all types of elongated articles, such as cigarettes, sausages, rods, and other elongated articles. A disadvantage of handling lumber, however, is that bundles must be formed of very large sizes and a person is usually required to effect this stacking and to control a feed machine each time there is a malfunction, for the reason that lumber has a tendency of piling up one on top of each other or aligning itself crooked on a conveyor. There are many reasons for this, some being that the lumber is not always perfectly flat and straight, and each piece is not usually of the same weight due to the varying degree of humidity in the wood and the type of wood or the sap content of the wood pieces. Also, wood pieces utilized as lumber are usually large and heavy and most known packaging machines are for articles which are small lightweight and substantially of uniform size.